COVID-19 Hospitalization Trends in Rural Versus Urban Areas in the United States.

Since the summer of 2020, the rate of coronavirus cases in the United States has been higher in rural areas than in urban areas, raising concerns that patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) will overwhelm under-resourced rural hospitals. Using data from the University of Minnesota COVID-19 Hospitalization Tracking Project and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, we document disparities in COVID-19 hospitalization rates between rural and urban areas. We show that rural-urban differences in COVID-19 admission rates were minimal in the summer of 2020 but began to diverge in fall 2020. Rural areas had statistically higher hospitalization rates from September 2020 through early 2021, after which rural-urban admission rates re-converged. The insights in this article are relevant to policymakers as they consider the adequacy of hospital resources across rural and urban areas during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rural and traditional cafes and restaurants: a new emerging trend in domestic tourism

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the latest phenomenon emerging from rural towns and villages, where a surge in traditional cafes and restaurants has spurred a new trend in sustainable tourism development. This phenomenon is linked to local efforts to mitigate the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the series of lockdowns that accompanied it. This paper focuses on two critical lines of inquiry: (1) Where did the idea stem from? and (2) How has it developed to the extent that it now constitutes one of the few primary sources of income for underdeveloped communities? Design/methodology/approach: Exploratory research was conducted in rural and urban areas where tourism is still developing. In depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a sample consisting of ten owners of rural and traditional cafes who consented to their participation in the study. Findings: Emerging trends such as rural and traditional cafes and restaurants can be a stable source of income for underserved communities in uncertain times. Local entrepreneurs often play a critical role in the development of sustainable rural tourism efforts as they have a better understanding of the needs of their own local community. Furthermore, their projects typically carry higher levels of authenticity and innovation with a greater ability to attract both local and international travelers. Research limitations/implications: Taking into consideration the exploratory nature of this study, a small convenience sample was used. Originality/value: This study highlights the importance of innovation in the tourism industry during precarious times, the most recent example of which was the global COVID-19 pandemic. This paper suggests that the industry can rely on new emerging trends to mitigate the loss of revenue from previous sources of tourism. Furthermore, the study showcases the importance of domestic tourism trends and how it can lead to an expansion in international tourism resources. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

ICT literacy, resilience and online learning self-efficacy between Chinese rural and urban primary school students.

In the process of large-scale online education during the COVID-19 pandemic, students' online learning has caused widespread public concerns. This study investigated the relationships between Chinese rural and urban primary school students' information communications technology (ICT) literacy, student resilience, and online learning self-efficacy in a large-scale online education environment during the pandemic in China. We compared 5,037 primary school students in rural areas to 5,045 primary school students in urban areas with matching gender and grade in nine regions in China's Guangdong province, using a survey comprising an ICT literacy scale, a student resilience scale, an online learning self-efficacy scale, and an ICT devices scale. The ICT literacy, resilience and online learning self-efficacy of primary school students in rural areas were significantly lower than those in urban areas (p < 0.01). The primary school students' ICT literacy was significantly associated with student resilience and online learning self-efficacy. Student resilience played a mediating role between ICT literacy and online learning self-efficacy, while the rural/urban area factor moderated the relationship between ICT literacy and student resilience. These findings suggest that ICT literacy is more scarce and important for primary school students in rural areas of China than for those in urban areas. Improving ICT literacy among primary school students can enhance students' resilience and thus improve their online learning self-efficacy, especially in rural areas.

Remote Implementation of a School-Based Health Promotion and Health Coaching Program in Low-Income Urban and Rural Sites: Program Impact during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Adapting existing health programs for synchronous remote implementation has the potential to support vulnerable youth during the COVID 19 pandemic and beyond. METHODS: The Stanford Youth Diabetes Coaches Program (SYDCP), a school-based health promotion and coaching skills program, was adapted for remote implementation and offered to adolescents from low-income communities in the US: an urban site in San Jose, CA and rural sites in Lawrence County, MO, and Central Valley, CA. Participants completed online pre- and post- surveys. Analysis included paired T-tests, linear regression, and qualitative coding. RESULTS: Of 156 enrolled students, 100 completed pre- and post-surveys. Of those: 84% female; 40% Hispanic; 37% White; 28% Asian; 3% African American; 30% other race. With T-tests and regression models, the following measures showed statistically significant improvements after program participation: health knowledge, patient activation, health understanding and communication, consumption of fruits and vegetables, psychosocial assets of self-esteem, self-efficacy, problem-solving, and ability to reduce stress. Technology barriers were frequently reported at Lawrence County site. 96% participants reported making a lifestyle change after program participation. CONCLUSIONS: Remote implementation of health promotion programs for vulnerable youth in diverse settings has potential to support adoption of healthy behaviors, enhance patient activation levels, and improve psychosocial assets.

Celebrating the Women-to-Women Tech Ideas Dedicated to Women Competition: Bridging gaps, changing lives [WIE From Around the World]

One of the core pillars of this year's 25th Anniversary Celebrations was the Women-to-Women (W-to-W) Tech Ideas Dedicated to Women competition, and the results were astounding. A new endeavor intended to celebrate the ingenuity of IEEE Members and their colleagues, especially due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women in particular, participants from all IEEE Societies and affinity groups were invited to present solutions that would tackle issues in these areas: smart childcare and education;elderly communication and senior safe living;medicine, mental health aid, and security for women;and sustainable environment solutions in rural and urban areas. © 2007-2011 IEEE.

Rural and traditional cafes and restaurants: a new emerging trend in domestic tourism

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the latest phenomenon emerging from rural towns and villages, where a surge in traditional cafes and restaurants has spurred a new trend in sustainable tourism development. This phenomenon is linked to local efforts to mitigate the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the series of lockdowns that accompanied it. This paper focuses on two critical lines of inquiry: (1) Where did the idea stem from? and (2) How has it developed to the extent that it now constitutes one of the few primary sources of income for underdeveloped communities? Design/methodology/approach Exploratory research was conducted in rural and urban areas where tourism is still developing. In depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a sample consisting of ten owners of rural and traditional cafes who consented to their participation in the study. Findings Emerging trends such as rural and traditional cafes and restaurants can be a stable source of income for underserved communities in uncertain times. Local entrepreneurs often play a critical role in the development of sustainable rural tourism efforts as they have a better understanding of the needs of their own local community. Furthermore, their projects typically carry higher levels of authenticity and innovation with a greater ability to attract both local and international travelers. Research limitations/implications Taking into consideration the exploratory nature of this study, a small convenience sample was used. Originality/value This study highlights the importance of innovation in the tourism industry during precarious times, the most recent example of which was the global COVID-19 pandemic. This paper suggests that the industry can rely on new emerging trends to mitigate the loss of revenue from previous sources of tourism. Furthermore, the study showcases the importance of domestic tourism trends and how it can lead to an expansion in international tourism resources.

Czech Consumers' Preference for Organic Products in Online Grocery Stores during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

A major advantage of online organic produce shopping is the fact that it saves energy and reduces emissions otherwise generated by customers during their time spent on the road and while shopping. Organic products in general positively impact sustainability, the environment, and the regions of their origin along with the social changes in these regions and further rural development. Moreover, these products positively impact the perceived health benefits and quality of food labeled as organic. The Czech Republic has currently seen a rise in organic food purchasing and supply trends. This study maps the factors possibly influencing consumers' decision to go shopping for organic food online. Observed factors include the following demographic characteristics of consumers (respondents): gender, age, education, household income, number of children in the household and number of household members. A total of 757 respondents from the Czech Republic from September 2020 to December 2020 took part in the research. Logistic regression, used for data processing, identified the statistically significant effects of education, income and number of household members on online purchases. These conclusions were confirmed by a detailed contingency tables analysis, including the almost monotonous trend of the dependencies, with only minor deviations in a maximum of one category. The strongest influence of some categories on the emergence of partial dependencies was found by residue analysis. The research confirmed that the frequency of online grocery shopping increases significantly with increasing education and income of respondents and decreases with increasing the number of household members. Most respondents apparently shop for groceries online because of time savings, better product choice and more convenient and easier search.

Equitable Access to eLearning during Covid-19 Pandemic and beyond. A Comparative Analysis between Rural and Urban Schools in Zimbabwe

This paper was motivated by the increased digital disparity between rural and urban learners in Zimbabwe. It was further exacerbated by the advent of Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, which disenfranchised rural learners as schools had no other alternative, except adopting eLearning platforms. The study's main objectives were to determine the preparedness of rural schools in adopting eLearning and conducting a comparative analysis between rural and urban schools on equitable access to eLearning during Covid-19 crisis. In that respect, the study pursued a mixed research methodology grounded on a pragmatist philosophical view. In line with that, an exploratory case study strategy became prime in gathering both qualitive and quantitative from 112 participants found in Goromonzi district schools of Zimbabwe. Ethnography was used to gather qualitative data between 2020 and 2021, whilst a survey contributed to quantitative data gathering. In that respect, findings from the study suggests that rural schools were largely disadvantaged by the adoption of eLearning during the Covid-19 pandemic period, as very few learners could attend online schools. More so, there was an increased educational inequality between rural and urban learners, mainly attributed to lack of ICT infrastructure and resources. Therefore, the study proposed an eLearning adoption strategy, which could be adopted by key stakeholders in the school education system during crisis periods. © 2022 IST-Africa Institute and Authors.

California's urban and rural asthma healthcare access and asthma management during COVID-19 pandemic

A lack of adequate healthcare access can negatively affect asthma management. The purpose of this study was to understand whether there was an association between source of care and asthma management. This study provides important insights concerning the changing landscape of how individuals receive asthma treatment and manage their asthma during a pandemic. Asthma management and asthma care have been studied;however, results have been inconclusive in relation to the barriers to health that are experienced among various adult age groups. Identifying additional subgroup characteristics could provide insight into where health practitioners, practice management, and policymakers direct healthcare resources. The 2020 California Health Interview Survey is a public use database with 22,160 surveyed participants. Bronfenbrenner's social ecological model was used in this study to explain how healthcare access, delays of needed care, and usual source of care likely influenced asthma management for adults between the ages of 35 and 65. The information was used to understand the relationship between asthma status, healthcare access, usual source of health care, asthma management, and need to delay care using descriptive statistics, chi-square test of association, and logistics regression. This study focused on the healthcare influence during COVID-19 and asthma prevalence among individuals between the ages of 35 and 65. Thus, it led to the identification of another subset of the population that is likely to be at increased risk for developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Planning the Trauma Hospital Network Expansion to Increase Access in Rural Communities

Trauma care services are a vital part of all healthcare-based networks as timely accessibility is important for citizens. Trauma care access is even more relevant when unexpected events such as the COVID-19 pandemic overload the capacity of hospitals. Research literature has highlighted that access to trauma care is not equal for all populations, especially when comparing rural and urban groups. In this research we present a decision-making model for the expansion of a trauma hospital network by considering the demand for services of rural communities. The decision-making model provides recommendations in terms of where to place additional aeromedical facilities and where to locate additional trauma hospitals. A case study is presented for the state of Texas, where a sensitivity analysis was conducted to consider changes in demand, cost, and the total number of facilities allowed in the network. The results show that the location of new facilities is sensitive to the expected service demand and the maximum number of facilities allowed in the network. © 2022 IISE Annual Conference and Expo 2022. All rights reserved.

An UAV Assisted Need Assessment and Prediction System for COVID-19 Vaccination

Health monitoring by government in rural and Urban areas become very much challenging task as they require huge amount of technicians, doctors and funds to complete. In the time of COVID-19 pandemic, it is difficult to allow doctors to visit rural areas for monitoring the health of public, rather than allocate their duties in COVID-19 hospitals to save critical patients. But, it is also necessary to monitor health of public to vaccinate them priority wise in the scarcity of COVID-19 vaccines. In this paper we have proposed a novel UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) assisted health monitoring system which can be operated in any remote location to get required data about the health condition of the people. After collecting the desired data from the user, system saves them in memory. In the control room, UAV uploads the collected data to the server for analysis. From the analysed data the system can decide whom need to be vaccinated immediately. UAV system will analyse the data with respect to different parameters like age, co-morbidity, blood pressure and other attributes. From this analysed data using machine learning algorithm, system also predicts how many days might be taken to complete the whole vaccination process. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Accost, Accede, or Amplify: Attitudes towards COVID-19 Misinformation on WhatsApp in India

Social media has witnessed an unprecedented growth in users based in low-income communities in the Global South. However, much remains unknown about the drivers of misinformation in such communities. To fill this gap, we conducted an interview-based study to examine how rural and urban communities in India engage with misinformation on WhatsApp. We found that misinformation led to bitterness and conflict - rural users who had higher social status heavily influenced the perceptions and engagement of marginalized members. While urban users relied on the expertise of gatekeepers for verification, rural users engaged in collective deliberations in offline spaces. Both rural and urban users knowingly forwarded misinformation. However, rural users propagated hyperlocal misinformation, whereas urban users forwarded misinformation to reduce their efforts to assess information credibility. Using a public sphere lens, we propose that the reactions to misinformation provide a view of Indian society and its schisms around class, urbanity, and social interactions. © 2022 ACM.

Area of Residence Differences in COVID-19 Effect on Greek Citizens’ Life

This paper presents the outcome of research investigating the COVID-19 outbreak’s effect on Greek citizens’ lives. This country has taken exceedingly early measures in order to prevent the virus spread and deaths of citizens. This paper also examines differences between citizens’ area of residence (urban vs. rural) and the effect of COVID-19 in their everyday lives. A non-probability sampling frame was implemented, and data was collected mainly through online platforms from 1 to May 13, 2020. A total of 3359 citizens completed the questionnaire and were included for analysis. Data Analysis (t-tests) revealed that statistical differences do exist in most cases. Communication routes to moderate citizens’ emotional pressure are discussed, pointing out the importance of preventive measures for public and individual health. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

The Second COVID Wave Washes Over New York State

By Oct 30, 2020 nine NYS counties had over 3% positive tests. By Nov 9, 29 counties exceeded 3% positive. By Nov 29, 45 counties out of 62 did. The contagion showed classic spatial diffusion from epicenters with great rapidity. Data on percent of positive COVID tests for 16 days out of 57 between Oct 30 and the Dec 25 crest showed no SE association with percent positive. The 31 rural counties often had significantly higher means and medians than the 31 urban. The sole factor frequently associating with percent positive was 2020 percent Trump vote. The Trump vote signaled risk behaviors that led to epicenters in rural counties spreading COVID to the rest of the state. After early January 2021, the means and medians declined as rapidly as they had built up to the crest, an indication that behaviors changed massively toward interventions, especially in the rural, Trump-voting counties. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

The Sixty-Two Counties of New York State

Well over half the population of New York State (NYS) lives in New York City (NYC) and three abutting counties (Westchester, Nassau, Suffolk). Socio-economic (SE) measures such as median household income, percent adults with college or higher degrees, and percent of population with various “race”/ethnic labels (white, Black, Latinx) differ significantly between the 31 rural and 31 urban counties. NYS has a functional SE system. For example: counties with high median income have high percent of adults with college degrees, lower percent white population, higher poverty rate, higher population, and higher population density. The COVID-19 pandemic led to much higher unemployment rates in 2020 in all counties than in 2019, with the NYC counties more than doubling their rates. The SE profile of counties that voted for Trump (Donald Trump) in the 2020 election was consistent with the national pattern: low educational attainment, high percent white population, high percent vote in rural counties. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Experiences made by family physicians managing patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection during spring 2020 - a cross-sectional analysis.

BACKGROUND: In Germany, family physicians care for about 85% of the patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. The geographic distribution of the first wave in 2020 was heterogeneous, and each federal state experienced different percentages of patients that died from COVID-19. Each of the 16 federal states implemented its own regulation about medical care for SARS-CoV-2 infected patients. Against this background, the objective of this analysis was to gather experiences made by primary care physicians managing SARS-CoV-2 infected patients during the first wave in March 2020 and to clinically characterize these patients. METHODS: In total, 5,632 physicians were invited to participate in an online questionnaire surveying routine data regarding the general care situation at the physician practice level and the care for patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were applied to characterize treatment experiences and to identify patient characteristics predicting the course of disease. RESULTS: 132 family physicians from all German federal states (except from Berlin) participated in this analysis (response rate 2.3%) and provided routine care data for 1,085 patients. Information from 373 of these patients were provided in greater detail. On average, each physician treated 8.5 patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. About 15% of the physicians used video consultations to communicate with their infected patients. More than 82% made positive experiences with the exceptional regulation to provide a certificate of incapacity to work by telephone. Half of the physicians faced equipment insufficiencies due to a lack of protective gear, and in 10% of the practices, the staff themselves acquired SARS-CoV-2 infection. Greater numbers of SARS-CoV-2 cases treated in a practice translated into higher odds for members of the practice to get infected (odds ratio (OR) 1.03, 95% CI [1.01;1.06]). Older persons, males and patients in rural areas had higher odds of a severe course of disease. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that a large percentage of primary care physicians additionally managed their COVID-19 patients remotely by telephone or video during the outbreak, while also being at a higher risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Further, the increased severity in rural areas underlines the importance of strong primary health care in order to enable hospitals to concentrate on critically ill patients.

Trends in COVID-19 cases, deaths, and staffing shortages in US nursing homes by rural and urban status.

The purpose of the study was to examine trends in COVID-19 cases, related deaths, and staffing shortages in nursing homes (NH) by rural and urban status from May 2020 to Feb 2021. Generalized linear mixed models with state-fixed effects were used to estimate the interaction effect of study period and rural/urban status on having at least: one COVID-19 case, one related death, and/or at least one week of staffing shortage using the NH COVID-19 data spanning the 40-week period. The findings revealed shortages in staff, particularly direct care providers, were greatly accelerated in rural NHs as the pandemic wore on over time. Conversely, staffing shortages in urban NHs were relatively stable despite the fluctuating COVID-19 cases over the same time period. The findings highlight the need of identifying effective strategies that prevent rural NHs from encountering staffing deficits in response to long-lasting natural disasters such as the COVID-19 pandemic.